February 2, 2010 – 11:31 am
Have you checked out the new studio? If you’re a Facebook fan (hint, hint), then you will have a great chance to do so. To find our fan page click HERE! In celebration of opening the new studio, we’re doing away with studio session fees all month long (02/2010)! (To guarantee your appointment time, we will collect a $50 reservation fee which will be applied to your print order). You get an approximately 30-minutes–one outfit, one backdrop–in studio or right outside session. Choose and order your images on the spot. Prints ordered immediately after the session will receive 10% off. If you prefer to place your order later, the discount does not apply. These sessions are limited to family (up to 5 subjects), maternity, children or babies. Newborns aren’t included in this offer since their sessions require extensive preparation and move at a different pace. Of course, if you have a newborn you’d like photographed, we would be happy to offer a newborn session at 50% off our normal session fee. Session times are limited and slots will fill fast, so contact us ASAP at 407-619-1359 or by email at cristy@cristynielsen.com to schedule your session. 
January 12, 2010 – 1:07 pm
You may remember Noah, we’ve been photographing him since he was a wee little baby. He gets cuter and cuter at every shoot and we always love to photograph him. I tell his parents he’s like a little mini college student… too smart for his own good and he just has that little scholarly look about him. Here’s this year’s shoot… yes he’s cute, so cute you want to eat him up! 
December 28, 2009 – 5:10 pm
While we may not have been religiously updating our blog, we are both quite active on facebook and have a fan page there. Join us for lots of facebook only specials, sales, contests and to see what we have been up to! You can find our facebook fan page HERE. Mention that you found your way to the fan page from the blog and you will be entered to win a free session!
December 28, 2009 – 4:31 pm
This is little Miss Kinsley… this is the third year we have done her portraits for her birthday. She is a DREAM to photograph, and she is so natural and easy in front of the camera. We met up with her parents for her shoot at Jetty Park. It was a gorgeous day at the beach, and we are thrilled with how the photos turned out! Kinsley once again turned on the charm for us and the camera and made our jobs simple and easy that day. We are thrilled that she is expecting a sibling soon and so happy to be seeing more of her and her family in the upcoming year!
December 28, 2009 – 4:15 pm
Wow, it’s been a CRAZY busy holiday season! We have slacked on our blogging in order to keep up with the holiday orders and sessions and truly apologize for the lack of attention to the blog!! There is lots of catching up to do and lots of sessions to post, so stay tuned for the posts to come!! Also keep an eye out for our January studio specials. We will be offering an introductory rate to celebrate our new studio!!
November 27, 2009 – 10:18 am
We hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!! In celebration of Black Friday and this holiday weekend we are offering a half priced reprint special for all 2009 sessions. If you had a session in 2009 and placed an order you are eligible to receive half off any reprints for your sessions. This is a great way to get those images that you didn’t order the first time around, or to stock up on some portraits for holiday gifts! We will also extend a 20% off of any canvas purchase! Purchases must be completed by this Sunday at midnight! All gallery requests will be loaded to the internet this afternoon for you to make your selections. Hop on this quick so you have time to place your order!!
2010 Wedding Specials!! Book a wedding before the end of 2009 and receive $500 off your chosen package!!
2010 Baby Plan Specials!! Book your baby “Grow With Me” plan by the end of the year and receive $250 off for the year and an ongoing 25% off your print orders for the duration of the plan!
2010 Valentine Boudoir Sessions!! January is the month for boudoir sessions. Book your boudoir session by December 15th for a January session and receive $100 off your boudoir session and album!
2010 Studio Sessions!! Half off studio sessions taking place in January and February!! Must be booked by January 31st!!
These discounts cannot be combined with any other coupons or specials. To take advantage of these specials please contact us ASAP at 407-619-1359 or email cristy@cristynielsen.com. Hoping everyone has a safe and enjoyable holiday weekend!
November 13, 2009 – 10:21 am
You know when you meet someone and you just click? Julie was one of those people for me. I met Julie through her sister in law Meggie at Meggie’s initial wedding consult. I knew as soon as I met her that we would hit it off and become fast friends, which of course we did…lol. Julie asked us to do a family portrait for her holiday photos and we were so happy to do so! The kids are adorable and were so much fun! Bonus that they’ve been in front of our cameras before and were pretty comfy with us already! We shot these around their home and at a nearby lake. Julie’s husband Matt was cracking me up for most of the session… trust me Matt your shirt was FINE!!! I don’t think he’ll ever live down his shirt drama… lol.
November 9, 2009 – 12:07 pm
I always love photographing this family. They are so sweet and fun and it’s so great to see the kids grow! We did this session for holiday card photos, quick, simple and easy! Have to love gorgeous families who make our jobs easy!
November 5, 2009 – 11:27 am
Why Are Professional Photographs Watermarked?
by Cristy Nielsen & Yolanda Rowe
As parents, we do everything we can to protect our children. We teach them to look both ways before crossing the street and many other ways to be safe. Photographers have the same responsibility to their work. Each photograph is important–not just because they are our livelihood but because they are portraits of special people: our clients. To protect our work and our clients, we watermark every image that appears online. We hope to discourage unethical people who steal from photographers by copying and using images for their purposes without authorization or compensating the copyright owner and subjects.
For example, let’s say your photographer posts preview images on a social networking site such as Facebook or Myspace. These photos are intended to show the client a preview of what their session images will look like. If they are not watermarked they cannot be identified back to the photographer who created the image and they could be stolen by a third party and used without permission. This has happened on numerous occasions by companies who will use photographs for their marketing campaigns and then photographers or their clients have found their images and photos on the sides of buses, on billboards, etc. Imagine finding a photo of you or your child on a flyer or website for some random company when you didn’t give permission for it to be used in that way and you will begin to understand why photographers watermark to protect their work.
Federal law is very clear on the copyright of images. The creator of the image (the photographer) is the owner of those rights. A client pays the photographer to take those images, but it does not give them ownership (rights) to what is created. Even if the client purchases a file or print it does not give the client copyright to the image. They are given a license to do certain things. This is called a Usage License and it is illegal to scan or copy it and use it in any way other than which it was intended: displaying the print itself. Even purchasing prints does not give the client copyright to the image and it is illegal to alter, scan, or copy it and use it in a way other than its intent. Copyright is held by the image creator for 70 years by law and infringement is punishable by up to $150,000 in fines PER image.
While it may seem like no big deal to make additional copies of an image, or crop out watermarks in web versions of photos, truly it is a big deal. A photographer works very hard on their images, and this is their livelihood, source of income and how they feed their family. When you copy and scan or alter watermarks out of images you are taking part of the income that they depend on to stay in business and serve their clients in the first place. Watermarking is a necessary evil to protect photographers, to protect their work and their job security. As Yolanda says “Copyright is like your vehicle. You can give someone the keys to drive it (granting permission to a client) but it doesn’t make them the owner of the vehicle.”
For more information on copyright please visit http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright
November 2, 2009 – 2:06 pm
Hopefully you came by and saw our sponsor table at the CFBN Birth Babies & Beyond Fair. It was the 5th annual fair in Maitland and was a great success again this year! If you missed it and would like a coupon towards a future session please email us and let us know and we will get one to you! If you missed the fair here are some photos from the day!
